<i>Update</i> Two Hospitalized After Norris School Bus Crash

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Updated: 7:07 PM Aug 25, 2009 Update Two Hospitalized After Norris School Bus Crash Firth, Neb. A crash involving a pickup truck and a Norris school bus occurred Monday shortly after 8:00 a.m., sending several people to area hospitals. Posted: 8:28 AM Aug 24, 2009 Reporter: 10/11 News Email Address: desk@1011now.com

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Two people are still in the hospital after a truck collided with a school bus Monday morning.

A spokesperson for BryanLGH West said both Jeff Hall, 50, of Hickman and Ronnie Aden, 67, of Cortland, are in serious condition.

The Lancaster County Sheriff's office said Hall, who was driving a pickup, failed to yield at the intersection of 25th Street and Gage Road in Southern Lancaster County.

The collision happened shortly after 8 a.m. Monday.

The Lancaster County Sheriff's Office said that emergency crews, including Lincoln, Hallam, Bennett, Beatrice, Adams, Claytonia and others responded - evaluating, treating and transporting injured students.

Hall was driving a white pickup south bound, while the Norris #7 school bus was traveling east on Gage road. The pickup truck collided with the school bus, tipping the bus over on its left side. Aden was the bus driver who helped all the students out of the bus. Hall and Aden were taken to BryanLGH West with serious injuries. Authorities are still investigating the accident.

Ed Mlniek, an emergency room doctor for BryanLGH West said 49 people were involved. Of those, 38 were transported to BryanLGH East and West, as well as St. Elizabeth Regional Medical Center.

"When you have an incident involving potentially 49 patients, this is a great test of our system and we activated our local disaster plan within the city itself and it worked very well," said Mlniek.

Mlneik said surgeons who weren't even on call showed up to offer help Monday.

Norris School district serves Cortland, Firth, Hickman, Holland Panama, Princeton, Roca and Hallam.

Latest Comments

Posted by: Chloe Location: Roca, Ne on Nov 2, 2009 at 04:49 PM

Some of my friends were on that bus and were gone for days. We should feel lucky that everybody lived and is now okay and back on their feet. Thank goodness for bus evacuation drills and the quick thinking of the High schoolers.

Posted by: alwayswondering Location: cortland on Oct 7, 2009 at 09:00 PM

i was one of the older kids on that bus. it was indeed very scary. but the truth is that the bus driver did not help the children out, it was me and two friends.

Posted by: Tracey Location: Hickman on Aug 27, 2009 at 10:58 PM

First of all I am so proud of the bus driver and kids for their swift evacuation to safety in such a horrifying event. I am very grateful to all the fire and rescue for their fine work!! But most of all my heart aches for the truck driver who was made out to be some careless driver-by "blowing through a stop sign" that didn't even exist that morning. Shame on Lancaster county & Gage county for that matter, for not having signs in place. And just for the record, Mr. Jeff Hall is someone's parent, someone's grandparent (& atleast some of them are at Norris) & to many of us in the area - one of Hickman's own Fire & Rescue Squad! How do you think he felt laying along side the road, broken & injured and unable to do what is in his heart - RESCUE! As a Norris Bus Driver, a Norris Parent & a Hickman Resident who travels country roads, I praise God that His hand of protection was evident that day, & pray for healing of body mind & spirit for all. God forbid - it could happen to any of us!

Posted by: Megan Location: Lincoln on Aug 26, 2009 at 10:30 AM

I have lived in the country for several years and I have seen bus drivers going way faster than 55mph on country roads. I think that anyone driving on country roads knows that at intersections you need to yeild especially at this time of year when the corn is so high and with the weather that we have had lately the roads are not super dry so you cannot see dust flying up from other vehicles. I think everyone should be grateful that the kids and other man in this accident are ok. We all need to remember that it was an ACCIDENT and things happen. JUST BE GRATEFUL EVERYONE IS OK!!!!!!!!!!

Posted by: Judy Location: Hallam on Aug 26, 2009 at 08:30 AM

I have two small kids that ride the bus from a rural location. My biggest concern now is how the buses handle blind unmarked intersections. The vehicle on the right does have the right of way, but that should never be insisted on is what the NE driver's manual says. It seems both driver's are at some fault. I know the bus my kids are on goes through some blind unmarked intersections. Now I'm fearful of what the bus driver does at those intersections. They should always have the safety of the kids in mind and be slowing way down to make sure no one is coming and not insisting on the right of way. That's what I want to hear as a mom of kids who ride the bus. Also, I know my kids bus driver has a cell phone. There has been no mention if either driver was using one at the time of the accident. That seems to be standard info. any more. I also would like to know the schools policy on cell phone use by the bus drivers.

Posted by: Anonymous Location: Beatrice Ne on Aug 26, 2009 at 08:11 AM

there was also no stop sign like there should of been there so they put up a temp. one

Posted by: To CE of Wymore and others on Aug 25, 2009 at 11:19 PM

The stop sign was not there at the time. They put it in there afterwords, and the driver got a ticket for failure to yield NOT going though a stop sign. It was an unmarked intersection and all the rules of a normal intersection still apply. And school buses should NOT have seat belts, this is because if in an accident of residential street speed (20 miles an hour), the bus should be ok because it has a higher inertia then a car or truck, while in this case it was on a country road and the man driving the truck was probably speeding raising the force of impact (Force= Mass, times, acceleration). And still seat belts would be of no help in this situation. Also as Ex-bus driver pointed out, the driver will be put under large amounts of mental stress to decide importance of passengers in a small amount of time. Leading to a potential lawsuit. When you post a "fact" please make sure you have your information reassured, please. Thank you

Posted by: Victims Friend on Aug 25, 2009 at 11:05 PM

Yes I agree with you completely. this is the reason I feel it is not a good thing to do.

Posted by: Kenny Location: York on Aug 25, 2009 at 10:39 PM

Anyone who would drive through an intersection at full speed with the corn that high needs to brush up on their defensive driving skills. Both drivers should share the liability.

Posted by: Ex-bus driver on Aug 25, 2009 at 06:32 PM

I would think closely about putting seatbelts on buses. You will then put the driver at risk of deciding which students to save and which ones not to in a serious accident. It only takes a bus about 3-4 second to fill with smoke and that is all the time the driver or others have to decide who to save and not. Do you ever want that choice? I know I did not. I have witnessed several videos through training and seatbelts are not the way to go. Those seats are designed to take the impacts. As society we only really hear about the serious accidents, what about the person backing out of a driveway and hitting a bus? Kids are not hurt because of the size of the bus. Most impacts are not as serious as the one we heard about today. As far as assistants on buses, school districts decide which routes they are on and not every bus will ever have one. Depends on the type of kids involved.

Posted by: Anonymous Location: Adams on Aug 25, 2009 at 05:30 PM

Seat belts on a school bus is not the way to go!

Posted by: Gladys on Aug 25, 2009 at 02:02 PM

I think all school buses should be equipped with seat belts and should have a driver's assistant to enforce the rules on the bus.

Posted by: LGH Boss Location: Firth on Aug 25, 2009 at 01:50 PM

After LGH let go of top RN's and hired less ethical ones, I hope they had proper care.

Posted by: Norris mom Location: Firth on Aug 25, 2009 at 10:51 AM

God bless all of the responders, hospital personnel, kids, bus driver,and Norris staff. Norris did the very best they could in a bad situation. I work at West Campus. Statistics show seatbelts save lives. There are always exceptions,but I have seen far many more deaths due to lack of seatbelts. Accidents happen. I don't know of too many people whoe have never made driving errors in all of their lives. Let's don't throw stones. Instead, be grateful that a potentially horrible situation had no fatalities. Let's focus on supporting our kids,staff,other parents, and give our kids extra hugs.

Posted by: Parent on Aug 25, 2009 at 03:23 AM

My daughter was on the bus. I got told at the hospital she was the worst out of all the kids at West and her injuries were not severe. I give a big thanks to the kids and Ronny for getting everyone off the bus. I also think Norris did a good job considering they had LOTS of phone calls to make. This is a phone call you never want to get, but we did and I think the way it was handled, was a good way. I don't think seat belts were the answer in this situation.

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